For over 30 years, our partner, John Sarratt, has been an active volunteer in professional and community activities.  In the past, he has served as President of Legal Services of North Carolina (now Legal Aid of North Carolina), which is the organization that provides basic legal services to North Carolinians who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.  He has also served on the Boards of Directors of the North Carolina Bar Association, Wake County Bar Association and Greensboro Bar Association (which is where he started his career in 1972).

More recently, John has received recognition from the Chief Justices’ Commission on Professionalism for “meritorious and extraordinary service … by providing sound and consistent leadership, guidance and personal assistance to countless attorneys, judges and legal personnel.”  This year he was recognized by Legal Aid of North Carolina for “singlehandedly raising over $1,000,000 for Legal Aid of North Carolina.”  In January, John will be awarded the CLE Volunteer of the Year award by the North Carolina Bar Association for his “exceptional dedication and service” in speaking to groups of lawyers as part of the continuing legal education required of each lawyer.  Over the years, John has made CLE presentations to well over 50 groups of lawyers across the state.

John has also volunteered his time and energy outside the legal community, serving among other roles as President of Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh, and as Senior Warden of his church, St. Mark’s Episcopal.

John’s efforts over the years to improve the quality of legal services provided by all lawyers, and his commitment to public service, is a reflection of the values and priorities of Harris, Winfield, Sarratt & Hodges, where our motivation comes from a desire not only to achieve the best results for our clients, but also to uphold the highest standards of the legal profession.

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Depuy Orthopaedics (a company owned by Johnson & Johnson) has recently issued a recall of its “ASR” artificial hip components. There has been an alarming failure rate associated with the Depuy ASR XL and ASR Hip Resurfacing System, and patients with a failed hip component may suffer hip pain, inflammation, metal toxicity, loosening of the components, and total hip failure.  Often, these problems require costly and painful hip revision surgeries.

The Depuy ASR Recall applies to hip replacement surgeries using Depuy ASR products performed in July 2003 and thereafter.

If you or someone you know has had hip replacement surgery in the last seven years and suffered complications, please call Clay Hodges at 919-546-8788 for a free consultation.  Our law firm can determine if you have the defective Depuy ASR hip components, and if so, we will work hard to protect your legal interests relating to this unfortunate product failure.

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Recently, a client asked me, “when are you going to become a pitbull and attack?”  The point, of course, is that my client wanted to see me “go after” the opposing side, to “rip him to shreds,” preferably in an open and public setting like a court hearing or trial.

Such inquiries are not rare, but they represent a misunderstanding of civil litigation and the adversarial judicial system.  By definition, litigation involves a dispute, and disputes are often saddled with animosity, hurt feelings, even rage, among the litigants.  But, however much animosity exists between the parties, trying to intentionally humiliate or “go after” the other side is not an effective litigation strategy. In fact, such attempts often backfire and hurt the client’s case.  And the goal of litigation is not to humiliate or abuse, but to win the case.

With good trial lawyers, the best legal work often occurs in quiet and unspectacular settings.  One of my partners recently took the deposition of the opposing party in a contentious lawsuit among emotional litigants.  But rather than verbally attacking or abusing the deponent[1], my partner instead spent a full eight hours methodically asking question after layered question, eventually inducing the individual to admit to several facts which, ultimately, destroyed the deponent’s case against our client.  If you were sitting in the conference room when it happened, you may have missed it.

Judges virtually never permit “pitbull attacks” in their courtrooms.  The histrionics we see on television are almost never allowed in a real courtroom, and for good reason.  But the most important reason for the client is this:  it doesn’t work.

At Harris, Winfield, Sarratt, & Hodges, we are committed to representing our clients zealously and to achieving the very best possible results in every case.  We never shy away from a fight, but we leave the “pitbull tactics” to television actors and bad lawyers.

– Clay Hodges

[1]  A deponent is a person being asked questions, under oath, in a deposition; a deposition is the taking of a person’s testimony outside a courtroom for the purpose gathering evidence and relevant information in a civil action.

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Welcome to our newly renovated website. I hope you will take a moment to tool around and check out the website’s information and features.

As you can see, Harris Winfield Sarratt & Hodges, LLP is a law firm specializing in civil litigation, with a particular emphasis on commercial and business disputes. As our partner Margie Winfield Harris writes, HSWH is:

A spirited litigation law firm offering big firm know how without the big firm expense.

We take this reputation very seriously. Our lawyers bring decades of litigation and courtroom experience to bear on your case, and when you have a question or concern, you have ready access to your lead litigator. So please take a look around our new website. You can contact us at the bottom of every page or on our dedicated Contact page. Don’t hesitate to setup a visit at our offices on Hillsborough Street in downtown Raleigh. We are ready to speak with you about your dispute or legal issue.

I’d also like to personally take this opportunity to welcome you to our new law blog.  In this blog, we will be covering legal topics relevant to filing lawsuits, conducting useful discovery, handling opponents, trying cases and resolving disputes through means other than litigation. We will also cover smart business practices, the latest trends in civil litigation, hot news from the firm and other subjects.

To Bookmark HarrisWinfield.com press CTRL+D and check out the latest information. Thanks for stopping by.

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